Trapped
by cheshireSophini
Summary: Rodolphus is on the run. He and the surviving Death Eaters are working to resurrect their Lord. Rodolphus gets injured in his animagus form while on a mission. Hermione takes him in, not knowing who he truly is...
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, this is our first one-shot/ficlet based off the poll results. Death Eaters won by one point, with Slytherins coming second. This will be a ficlet, so only about 3-4 chapters. Enjoy!**

* * *

**VOLDEMORT DEFEATED BY THE BOY WHO LIVED - MINISTRY BACK ON ITS FEET AFTER KINGSLEY SHACKLEBOLT TAKES ON NEW JOB OF MINITSER FOR MAGIC**

Rodolphus snorted as he scanned the front page of the Daily Prophet.

_Yes_, He thought to himself, _But they keep the other news nice and quiet._

He quickly flicked through the paper until he found what he was looking for.

**MASS EX-DEATH EATER BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN**

Little did the ministry know that the surviving Death Eaters had perfected becoming animagus in Azkaban before escaping to search for the Resurection Stone to bring their Lord back to life. Well, searching between hiding from the Ministry and watching the Order of the Phoenix who were hunting them down.

_There weren't many Death Eaters left alive... _

Rodolphus knew that the Malfoy's were alive... But they'd gone back to the "good" side.

_If only he could convince them that the Dark Lord was going to come back, more powerful than ever._

There was also his brother, Rabastan. Along with Dolohov, Rookwood, Nott, McNair, Yaxley, Travers and Rowle. But apart from that, not many had survived.

With a sigh, Rabastan folded the paper and threw it at the flaking yellow wall. At that moment, he was staying in a sleazy Muggle hotel, trailing Arthur Weasley as he visited an Order meeting.

_That was one of the only good things about Voldemort being dead... _

The Order were now more open about their meetings, not having the threat of the Death Eaters ambushing them...

_Stupid fools_, Rodolphus spat.

He jumped as he heard a scratching at the window. Getting up off the chair he was lounging on and tousling his auburn hair, Rodolphus pulled back the curtains that almost fell apart in his hands and opened the window to find an eagle owl flying in. Holding it still, he took the letter from its leg and let it fly back out the window. A Muggle man saw at fly out and gasped, drawing Rudolphus' attention.

"What are you looking at?" He snarled from the floor above, "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light shot out of the end of his wand, killing the man instantly. Rudolphus closed the window and went back inside to open the letter.

_He recognized the writing immediately. _

The letter was from Rabastan, his brother. The untidy handwriting scrawled across the parchment as if a drunken spider had been dancing there. Rabastan had never been good at writing without magic. And now they were limited to it so that the Ministry wouldn't hunt them down. After killing the Muggle man, Rudolphus would have to move...

Again. With a wry smile, he read the letter.

_Evening, brother. I hope it is still evening... My owl can be dreadfully slow. Well, anyway. I hope trailing the blood traitor Weasley went well. Did you find out where the meeting was being held? I hope so. My own work has not been going so well... The Longbottom boy is currently in Italy, studying a rare type of plant that can bring trees to life. I must say, it is incredibly boring. He's done nothing Order related since he got here!_

_Anyway, Rookwood wrote to me a while ago saying he couldn't find the Potter brat and Yaxley can't find anything out on Minerva McGonagall. We're all going to switch posts in the morning... I'm going to find the Malfoys and talk to them again. Hopefully it works this time. We have decided that you shall move on to trailing Potter's Mudblood. That should be fun...Well, I shall see you soon. We are having a Death Eater meeting in four weeks. Be there to report on what you've gathered._

_PS. Get a shave.__Your beard looks terrible. _

_My beard isn't that bad_, Rudolphus smirked to himself.

_It wasn't really a beard anyway, it was just... stubble._

Well, he'd better get moving. He didn't have a clue where Granger was so he'd to leave early. Rabastan had this thing about time keeping... He liked to start all watches at seven thirty am and end them at ten pm.

_Sometimes, it was really annoying._ Rodolphus quickly packed his suitcase before shrinking it so he could fit it in the pocket of the Muggle suit he was wearing (it made his skin crawl at the thought of it) and opened the window before turning into his Animagus form.

* * *

It was at seven am when a small red breasted robin landed on the white picket fence in front of 1 Mole End in the English country side. Rudolphus had managed to track down Granger and had found out she lived on this stretch of road but where exactly was unknown to him. Ruffling it's feathers, the robin flapped its wings once for luck before taking off towards a field of corn.

_It didn't feel wise to be on the road..._

Granger was said to be the brightest witch of her age and could spot and Animagus from a mile off!

The robin flew diagonally through the field ignoring a faint whirring sound that he didn't recognize.

_It was probably just another bird or something._

He flew on, getting more and more anxious as the sound got louder... And closer.

He ignored it and kept flying. He was a bird for God's sake, he could out fly anything... _Couldn't he?_

Rudolphus flew above the corn and hovered there for a moment, searching for the source of the sound. He couldn't seem to find it but it was getting a lot louder. Eventually, he saw it but not before it was too late. A tractor, coming straight his way.

_AHHHHH_! Rudolphus screeched to himself. He'd never seen one of these Muggle transporters and up close, it was extremely frightening.

With a yell of pain, he smashed into the front windscreen and fell back into the corn.

_Must... Get... UP! _Rudolphus screamed into himself drowsily, he needed to get away from this monster before it killed him.

With a huge amount of effort, he pulled himself out of the way of an oncoming wheel and flew up again. He spotted a red brick house in the distance with smoke bellowing from its chimney.

_House... Safe._

The robin set off again, as the tractor ploughed on. Closing his eyes in relief, Rudolphus let the wind direct him and breeze through his feathers. The feeling was wonderful after the weeks he'd spent in Askaban.

Now, he was free.

He was -

His thoughts cut off as he slammed into a window. He heard a faint snap as he crashed down to the stone drive. His wing was definitely broken.

_So that's why birds always fly into things... _He thought drowsily as black dots danced in front of his eyes as he lay woozily on the stones.

_ This is not good._

He jumped in fright as a huge ginger animal peeked over the side of the roof above.

_Oh God, it's going to eat me!_ The animal jumped down and pinned Rudolphus to the ground with a clawed paw while inspecting him with huge inquisitive brown eyes. Rudolphus couldn't say exactly what it was... It was something between a large cat and a small tiger...

"CROOKSHANKS! NO!"

* * *

**AN: Before anyone says anything, Robins are an omen of death, just like Rodolphus. Also, we don't actually know his animagus and he needed to be a bird or cute animal for the purposes of the fic XD.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all, this fic has had such a great reception! Sorry for the short chapters, but for the moment we're focusing on NL.**

**Also, to anyone wondering, Robins are omens of death and illness, crows are just more associated with that. (Sophini would know, because she lives in the country parts of Northern Ireland. They're very superstitious around there...)**

**Chapter 2**

Hermione stared down at Crookshanks, then at the helpless little Robin that lay at her feet. How could Crookshanks attack the poor thing? He was half kneazle, he was supposed to be a good judge of character! What could a little Robin do?

_Except, of course, bring a little Christmas cheer..._

"Bad, bad Crookshanks! Go back inside, NOW!" Hermione yelled.

Crookshanks give her a pleading look, before realizing that she wasn't going to budge on the matter. He turned and padded away with his tail between his legs, but not before hissing at the defenceless creature that was lying on the ground, visibly shaking.

Hermione bent down and peered over the Robin. It was scruffy looking, but still quite cute. However, it seemed to have landed on one of it's wings, which now lay under the rest of it's body. Hermione felt sympathy for it, so she carefully scooped it up, making sure not to damage it's wing any further. It started tweeting desperately.

She walked into her house, grateful that she had left the door open, and set the Robin on her table. She would clean it after.

_Magic was so very useful, except... _

Hermione couldn't heal it. She could heal a broken arm with a flick of her wand, but not a wing. Besides, unless you specialized in Care of Magical Creatures, it would be dangerous to try and heal an animal that wasn't your familiar.

She sighed, as she wondered what to do. She couldn't go and see a vet as they said never to try and help a wild animal or bird. She also couldn't ask anyone from the Wizarding World as Hagrid couldn't use magic,

_Or fit in her house,_

and Charlie was in Romania.

Hermione sighed and looked at the Robin.

"I'm so very sorry about this, but it will get better..."

She picked it up and straitened out it's wing. It let out a shrill tweet, and then started twittering again, loudly and quickly.

Hermione felt very guilty and had no idea what to do. She couldn't risk leaving it outside and having it get eaten or die.

_Damn her bloody big heart..._

She transfigured a cloth into a cage,

_A big one, at that,_

and set the Robin in carefully.

"You'll be staying with me until you get better."

The Robin twittered on. Hermione realized that she couldn't keep referring to it as "The Robin"...or "It" for that matter...

"As long as you're here, I'll call you...Punar. It means Robin." Hermione smiled down at it. "I know you'll love it here!"

* * *

_HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME, YOU FILTHY MUGGLE SCUM!_ Rodolphus roared as Hermione closed and locked the door of the cage she'd made for him. Of course, it came out as another happy sounding tweet.

"That'll keep you safe from Crookshanks," Hermione smiled, "Speaking of which, I better go find that silly cat before it tries to kill something else..." Hermione trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief before leaving the kitchen to go and close the door while looking for her cat.

Rodolphus groaned in agony as he tried to move his wing again. It felt like it was on fire! He'd never felt anything like it!

_Well... That wasn't really true... He supposed a Crucio felt similar to it. _

With pain flashing through it, he folded it behind his back before trying to change back into his human form. It wouldn't hurt as much then. He closed his eyes and focused, expecting relief from the pain in his wing any moment but it didn't come. He couldn't change back. His wing didn't resemble anything on his human body so it wouldn't heal if he changed back.

So he couldn't.

With what would've been a snarl in human form, Rodolphus hobbled over to the cage door and started pecking at the lock. It didn't budge. In a rage, he threw himself at the bars, just as Hermione walked in with her cat in her arms.

"Oh no, no! Punar don't do that! You'll hurt yourself!" Hermione cried, running over to the cage with Crookshanks still in her arms.

_I DON'T BLOODY CARE! LET ME OUT OF HERE! AT ONCE!_ Rodolphus snarled. His small tweets made Hermione smile.

"I think he likes that name, doesn't he, Crookshanks?" Hermione cooed to the cat, "Now... Punar, this is Crookshanks. Crookshanks, this is Punar. You do not attack him! OK?"

Hermione kept talking as if one of the animals was actually going to reply.

"OK... I'm going to let you get to know each other," Hermione decided, "But you do not try to hurt Punar, OK, Crookshanks? He's your friend."

She set the cat on the table beside the cage and backed off a bit, but not far enough that she couldn't grab the cat quickly if trouble arose. Crookshanks circled the cage, his eyes cold and impassive. He finally reached the front and sat down, his huge tail swishing angrily as his eyes roamed over the cage, seeing if he could find a way to breach it and kill the robin that obviously wasn't a robin.

_What are you looking at?_ Rodolphus demanded. The cat continued to stare at him.

_Look, I know you can understand me_, Rodolphus continued, _So let me out... I'll make it worth your while..._

The cat didn't reply and simply got up and came slightly closer to the cage before sitting down again. It was grating on Rodolphus' nerves. Finally, he snapped.

_STOP STARING AT ME, YOU GIANT FURBALL!_

The cat let out a roar like a lion and jumped forward, tipping the cage over. It rolled and fell off the table and onto the floor, smashing open with a bang.

"CROOKSHANKS! WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU?" Hermione shrieked, grabbing the cat before releasing that Punar was making a bid for freedom. He'd started trying to fly again, which would only damage his wing further.

"Punar! Come back!"

Rodolphus wasn't listening. He was slightly lopsided and his broken wing was convulsing with pain but he was flying out of Hermione's and the cat's reach.

Slowly, he made his way out of the kitchen as Hermione continued to scream at him to get down. He couldn't find any escape routes...

_Well, there were plenty of windows but all of them closed and his wing was getting so, so heavy. _

Still flying above Hermione's head, he saw the front door open at the end of the hallway. With a fresh burst of strength, he launched himself forward. The boy in the door looked shocked to see a robin flying straight at him... Or maybe it was just Hermione running at him with an arm full of cat.

He looked a tiny bit older than Hermione and his hair was shining a brilliant orange. Rodolphus would have thought it was a Weasley if it hadn't have been for the lack of an ear along with the lack of hand me down robes.

"CATCH THAT ROBIN!" Hermione screamed at him. The boy seemed to clear his head before pulling out his wand and pointing it straight at Rodolphus.

"STUPEFY!"


	3. Chapter 3

Sophini felt the need to defend herself from my comments. Any of her A/Ns will be in italics. Thank you for all the positive feedback. Because of that this will be a longer fic. Nocens Locus will be updated soon. Either tonight or tomorrow.

_Author Note - From Sophini - I'd just like to defend myself for the previous chapter... Although I am from the country, it does not mean I am "a country folk." I can be just as sophisticated as Cheshire who's from the town. Also, just because I'm from the country does not mean I'm superstitious! I'm surprisingly NOT superstitious! _

Chapter 3

"So... Uh, why do you have a robin again?" George frowned, walking over and picking the stupefied robin up from the ground.

"I found him," Hermione smiled, "And also, Crookshanks was about to kill him... His name's Punar."

"And he was flying about your house because...?"

"Crookshanks attacked him again... And he managed to escape his cage," Hermione sighed.

"I thought you were against keeping animals in cages," George scowled.

"I am! But his wing's injured! I want to make him better... I mean, just look at him!" Hermione cooed, "He's so cute!"

_She did not just call me cute!_ Rodolphus scowled from his stupefied position.

George snorted as he followed Hermione back into the kitchen after closing the door.

_Hermione was one crazy girl._ But George liked her anyway.

He'd always liked her.

_A lot more than Ron ever would._

Ron didn't know he had a good thing until she started going out with someone.

Hermione quietly set the cage on the table again before turning a vase she didn't like into a padlock, taking Punar from George and securely locking the little robin inside. Hermione revived him and turned back to face George.

"Do you know how to look after robins?"

"Hermione, I think you are forgetting something," George smirked, "I failed my third year Care of Magical Creatures class. Why would I know?"

"I don't know!" Hermione groaned, "I don't know what to do with him!"

"Well, how about getting him something to eat?" George suggested.

"Like what?"

"I don't know... A bug or something? I'll help you catch one, come on," George smiled, putting his arm around Hermione and guiding her through the door, "Oh and by the way, there's an Order meeting next week..."

Rodolphus sat up in his cage.

_Did that boy just say Order meeting?_

If he did, then he had to be a **_Weasley_**.

The voices trailed off as George and Hermione headed outside so Rodolphus explored his cage again.

Now, with the padlock, there was no way out.

_But did he need a way out?_

Granger was part of the Order... And this boy, George, seemed to like her and would obviously be back again.

He could spy on the Order... _From the inside. _

It was a good plan and he didn't have any other ideas.

_Actually, it was a great plan._ Spying was what he was good at. It was his job_..._

_...excepting his rather effective __**interrogation **__skills_...

And if Rodolphus was going to do his job... Then it would be done better than anyone else.

The Death Eater's would come down on the Order before they knew what hit them.

_Yes, everything would be perfect..._

* * *

Crookshanks leapt up the final stair onto the second floor landing.

_He didn't like that robin._

Yes, Hermione often did bring wounded animals back to the house but this robin... There was something off about it.

_And Hermione was __**refusing **__to see that._

A growl built up in the cat's throat as he head-butted Hermione's bedroom door open and strolled inside. This robin was stressing Crookshanks out. And the best treatment for stress, Crookshanks knew, was a nice long sleep. Especially when it was on Hermione's soft bed when she wasn't there. The growl died down and gave way to a purr as Crookshanks jumped onto Hermione's bed and crawled in between the duvet and the pillows.

_He would sort out the robin later..._

* * *

Hermione laughed and fell back onto the grass outside her house. She and George had been outside for a good ten minutes looking for bugs but with no result. They had then changed their minds about finding bugs and had started to play rugby with the ball that Teddy Lupin had left after he had visited her house with Harry last weekend.

Hermione had loved the way Harry was bringing up Teddy. He was allowing him to experience Muggle and wizard life and Hermione thought it was very beneficial... That was until George rugby tackled her, leaving her laughing on the ground. With a sigh, George collapsed beside her.

"Well, that was nice," George smiled, his red hair shining in the sunlight.

"Yeah," Hermione agreed, "And I found a spider for Punar."

"WHAT?" With a yell, George jumped to his feet. Hermione followed a little more gracefully, with a tiny spider dangling from her finger tips.

"I thought it was only Ron who was scared of spiders," She smirked.

"It is... I just... Don't want it to crawl into my... Ear," George stammered.

"Come on," Hermione smiled, "Let's go give this to Punar."

Still smirking, Hermione led the way back into the house.

* * *

Rodolphus stared, wide eyed, at the spider in front of him. Granger had set it in his cage and was now looking at him expectantly. Rodolphus was disgusted.

_Do you expect me to eat this?_

Another happy tweet escaped his beak, making Rodolphus shake with rage.

"I don't think he likes spiders..." Hermione commented.

"Hey, you never know. He might be a Buddhist robin," George grinned. This earned him an elbow in the ribs before Hermione turned back to Rodolphus again.

"Eat up, Punar. We don't want you to get sick."

Rodolphus' only reply was to stare, before turning his back on the spider.

_If this is what the food is like, this will be a long stay..._

* * *

Rabastan was currently in France, tracking the Malfoys. He had managed to find out that they were staying in one of their mansions near Bordeaux. He knew that convincing the Malfoys would be hard, especially after Rookwood's disastrous last visit, and his previous failed attempt.

But, Rabastan loved a challenge, and talking to the Malfoys certainly was one.

_Besides, anything was better than trailing after that Longbottom boy..._

He knew that he could win over the Malfoys. Their return to the "good side" was only because of Golden boy Potter defending them. When they were free from all charges they suddenly were back in the Public's good graces, not to mention the Ministry's...

That meant more money, more fame...more people to bribe and blackmail...

In order to get the Malfoys back, Rabastan merely had to win them over.

_With the plans for the Dark Lord's return, who wouldn't want to be at his side?_

The Malfoys could have the good image, and the Dark Lord's favour...

He knew that Lucius would be a powerful ally, even without the Malfoy name.

_That man was, without a doubt, Slytherin to the core..._

It would be just a matter of time before they were back, where they belonged.

Rabastan lounged back into his chair. The cottage he was staying in was quite comfortable. All he'd had to do to own it was Avada the couple who lived there. Of course, he had used a wand he had..._acquired _while travelling to France, just to make sure that he couldn't be traced. Of course, he had to then dispose of it...

_The wand wasn't that good anyway... _

He started wondering how Rodolphus was doing. The lucky bugger got the Granger girl. A fountain of information all stored in a small, curvy body.

_Pity she was a mudblood..._

_And stuck to Potter's side... _

That also got Rabastan wondering why Rodolphus hadn't replied to his letter. Usually he would as soon as he got a new lead...

_Which, if he knew his brother, shouldn't have taken this long..._

But after all, Rodolphus seemed to inherit the worst luck of the two...

_Just look at Bellatrix..._

Well, wherever Rodolphus was, he was probably just fine...


	4. Chapter 4

**Sooo...*rubs neck awkwardly* the wait wasn't _that_ long...**

**Yeah, really, _really_ sorry about that *hides behind chair to avoid hurled objects* **

**Anyway, On with the show! (If everyone hasn't abandoned this because of our dodgey updating)**

* * *

A slightly tawny looking fox sat in a graveyard, licking its paws while silently watching the entrance intently.

It was waiting for something, or someone, that was clear enough, but why in an empty graveyard on a cold, starry night was not.

The fox froze as it caught the scent of someone approaching.

Sure enough, its ears started to twitch as it heard something.

_Boots crunching on the gravel walkway between the graves, a cloak slithering along the ground behind its owner._

Silently, the fox rose and slipped behind a rock, the velvety pads on its feet barely whispering as they touched the grass that had grown over the untidy graves.

Soon, the person came into view, their almost white hair glistening the silvering moonlight.

The person was tall and muscular, wearing long black robes with a small crest sewn onto the right hand side of the chest and was obviously reaching his twenties.

"Hello?" The person called out, his voice sounding nervous, despite the confident drawl it spoke with, "Are you there? I... I got your owl... About Vold-"

The fox moved faster than it ever had before.

With a snarl, it leapt at the stuttering person, tackling them to the ground and examining the crest on the robes all at the same time.

_It was the Malfoy crest..._

Somewhere between jumping and tackling the person to the ground, the fox had become a man with long auburn hair, almost identical to his brother, Rodolphus.

"Rabastan, I -" The person gasped from beneath him.

"NEVER SAY HIS NAME AGAIN!" Rabastan, now in his more recognizable human form, roared, "DO YOU WANT TO GET CAUGHT?"

The person didn't respond but started to glare.

"DO YOU? DO YOU, MALFOY? ANSWER ME!"

"No! I don't," Draco snarled from his position on the ground, under Rabastan, "But you told me to come here tonight and then don't show yourself! What else was I supposed to do?... Now, would you mind getting off me? You're dirtying my robes."

With a snarl Rabastan stood but all the same offered his hand to the young Malfoy.

"Where are you going?" Draco demanded as Rabastan set off at a brisk pace through the grave yard.

"To the meeting," Rabastan growled over his shoulder, "We're already late as it is. If you've taught me anything over these last few years, it's never trust a Malfoy."

"Then why did you bring me here?" Draco gasped, practically running to match Rabistan's stride.

Rabastan froze solid and swung around to face the pale haired boy, his teeth bared menacingly, "Because... When He rises again... He'll need his followers around him, even if they are good for nothing mud-lovers! Don't look at me like that, we all know you have a thing for the mudblood...Now come on! You've made me late and the others don't know you're coming... By the way, don't be expecting to be welcomed back with opened arms... After you and your family deserted us, you Malfoys have given yourselves a bad name."

Without another word, Rabastan morphed back into his Animagus form of a tawny fox and ran, leaving Draco to hurriedly change into his Animagus form of a pale white ferret and scamper after him.

A short while later they arrived in a wood, where they crawled down a burrow beneath a tree and changed back into their human forms to see the remaining Death Eaters sitting together in an empty human sized cave.

"Greetings, brothers," Rabastan grinned, as the Death Eaters glared at the newly changed Draco.

"It appears you have a traitor on your tail..." Travers snarled, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Draco, "... Why?"

"We need all the help we can get to get Him back," Rabastan insisted, pushing Travers's wand arm down, "Leave him be! He can help us when the time comes."

"Fine," Travers snapped, "But it'll be your neck on the line when he betrays us all... Again!"

"He won't betray us!" Rabastan insisted as Travers sat down and glared at Draco, along with everyone else in the overcrowded cave, "And besides... We have more pressing matters. Rodolphus has been missing for over six weeks now."

Rodolphus sat in his cage, staring angrily at the padlock that sealed him there.

_He was bored stiff.  
_  
In the past few weeks, nothing had happened.

_Nothing.  
_  
George Weasley had come back and forth to _flirt _with Mudblood Granger but there had been no more talk of the Order of the Phoenix, or any other information that could be helpful to the Death Eaters.

Sure, more red-headed Weasleys had appeared, including the daughter, and eventually The Boy Who Lived had appeared with a small boy that Hermione referred to as Teddy.

_Rodolphus couldn't wait to get out so he could kill them all.  
_  
But for now, he had to stay put.

His wing was slowly (and painfully healing) but he still couldn't change back to his human form and he couldn't scratch it, even though it was really itchy, because of the tiny splint that Hermione had applied to it.

_The splint did help though... It was healing him faster._

All in all, the Mudblood wasn't too bad an owner.

After the horrible incident with the spider she'd tried to make him eat, she'd gave him a mixture of seeds and fresh fruit and vegetables which agreed with him more and changed his water regularly so it was also fresh.

She obviously didn't like him sitting in his own waste either and regularly cleaned out his cage, along with giving him a soft bedding of sawdust shavings and straw.

And she'd given him things to entertain himself with - bird toys, mirrors and that type of thing.

_Too bad he was really a human.  
_

Hermione came into the kitchen wearing her usual morning wear of fluffy blue and white dotted slippers and a matching bathrobe.

Her hair was a mess, ironically like a bird's nest, and she held an angry looking Crookshanks in her arms.

With a small smile, she set him down in front of his red glazed bowl before opening a pouch of cat food and squeezing it in.

The cat gulped it up within seconds and trotted off towards the open window and climbing outside to chase after a small white butterfly.

Hermione shook her head in amusement and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl before cutting it up into manageable pieces and taking it to Punar's cage.

The padlock and door opened with a click and Hermione put the apple beside the sleepy looking robin, running her forefinger over his soft, soft brown head feathers and changing his water, leaving the cage door open.

Rodolphus had stopped trying to escape...

_It did him no good.  
_  
He never got very far because Hermione or Crookshanks always caught him and it damaged his wing further so now he sat obediently in his cage and was slowly gaining more freedom around the house.

Hermione slipped the bowl into the cage and locked it up again, gently murmuring, "I'll clean you out later," before making herself some toast and munching into it at the table.

A small knock came from the front door and Hermione abandoned her toast and orange juice to go and answer it as Crookshanks crawled back in the window, smelling the food.

_The cat's endless appetite never ceased to amaze Rodolphus.  
_  
The toast was gone and there was no trace of the cat ever having been there when Hermione came back into the kitchen leading a pale haired guest with a dreamy expression.

Frowning at the place where her lost toast once was, Hermione started making tea as the girl sat down.

"So, Luna, what are you doing around her? You don't visit often..." Hermione observed.

"Oh, I'm just looking to see if I can find any Canollapoas," Luna replied, "You haven't seen any have you?"

Rodolphus knew the voice instantly. The dreamy voice and expression perfectly matched her mad father's - Xenophilius Lovegood.

Hermione frowned in confusion but saw sense as not to ask what Canollapoas where and served Luna her tea before sitting opposite her.

Luna thanked her and asked if it was a Twyanshiiini mixture, to which Hermione replied it was not (mentally wondering what in Godric's name that was) before continuing.

"They're for my potion's experiment, the Canollapoas," Luna explained, "I'm trying to figure out a way to make a troll speak."  
_  
Why would you want to make a troll speak? That would be like the equivalent of talking to a Muggle! _Rodolphus tweeted from his cage, shuddering at the thought.

The words came out as a happy tweet, drawing the women's attention to him in his cage.

Luna gasped and, jumping from her chair, came running over, "Oh, Merlin! You have your own Hamselton! How lucky! Where did you get it?"

Hermione rose with a frown and said gently, "Luna... It's a robin... His name's Punar."

"Really?" Luna sighed, "Oh... Well then."

With a groan of despair, she fell into her seat opposite Hermione.

A moment later, after an awkward and disappointed silence, Luna brightened up again, "Oh, Hermione! Have you heard?"

"Heard what?" Hermione scowled.

"About the Battle Reunion!"

"What?"

"The Battle Reunion! We're meeting in June to celebrate our victory over Voldemort and the Death Eaters! Everyone's going to be there! We're having a party outside Hogwarts. And the Ministry officials are attending too! There was talk of a statue made of 'The Golden Trio' and Snape and everything!"

"Oh, Luna! That sounds great!" Hermione gasped in delight.

The girls went on gossiping about the party to come as Rodolphus grinned delightedly.

_Perfect._

What a perfect opportunity to wipe out the Ministry, the Order of the Phoenix and the so called Golden Trio all at the same time...  
_  
If only he could get out of that wretched cage by then!_

Rabastan sat at the desk in the Malfoy's holiday Manor with his head in his hands. To top off the fact that his brother was missing, the ritual needed to bring the Dark Lord back was a very complex and, well, _ancient._

_Pre-Salazar Slytherin ancient..._

Not only did he need _His _bones, a willing, unmarried witch and a place of pure magical energy, Rabastan also need at least one sentimental item belonging to the Dark Lord.

_Did the Dark Lord have any items he held dearly...?_

Rodolphus would know what to do. He was the type of person who always knew another way to do things. He had a perfect balance of patience, cunning and blind luck.

_Yet, he managed to go missing while tailing Potter's Mudblood. That was almost poetically ironic._

_Well,_ Rabastan thought, _He's bound to be alright. He's probably just having a little __**fun**__..._

That man could beat the Granger filth, after all, he survived years of marriage to Bellatrix Black. _Anything_ else would be like a walk through Honeydukes.


End file.
